September 30, 2010

More ADMIXTURE estimates in Eurasia

This time, I removed SNPs with more than 1% genotyping no-call from the Xing et al. (2010) dataset, and ran ADMIXTURE on the following populations (left-to-right): Slovenian, Kyrgyzstani, Buryat, and HapMap Chinese. For K=2:

The results are as expected, with Slovenians and Chinese forming opposite poles, and Kyrgyzstanis and Buryat showing a preponderence of Mongoloid ancestry, but with variable Caucasoid admixture. Notice a single Slovenian showing eastern influence.

For K=3:

The Buryat get their own cluster (blue). Some Chinese are seen as having "Buryat" influence, which makes sense as there have been incursion of Mongols into China in historical times. Some Buryat too seem to be "Chinese"-influenced.

Kyrgyzstanis show mixed affiliations. The presence of both a Buryat and a "Chinese" cluster is interesting. The Kyrgyz live at a lower latitude than the Buryat, so this may be a reason behind the "Chinese" cluster, while the Buryat are a more purely northern Mongoloid population.

Notice too, how the lone Slovenian becomes "blue" indicating Mongol rather than Chinese origins. This also makes sense as the Chinese people did not migrate to Europe, while Mongoloids of the steppe and forest zones did.

Interesting is also the emergence of a 2-3 Buryat with some "European" admixture. These may not stem from the centuries old mix between Sakas and Mongols, but may represent a more recent (e.g., Slavic) European element.

5 comments:

More likely Uralic origins, judging by the northern Mongoloid affiliations of both Uralics Mongols.

but may represent a more recent (e.g., Slavic) European element

No need to go that far as Kyrgyzstanis have much more of the green component than Buryats. Certainly very little, if any, of the green component in Kyrgyzstanis is from recent admixture with Russians or any other Slavs.

True, but were there ever Tatars or Mongols in the territory of Slovenia? Maybe some Tatar soldiers fighting for the Ottomans passed through Slovenia but that's all. Ottomans themselves ruled only a very small part of Slovenia and only for about 150 years. I think my Uralic hypothesis is much more plausible than any Mongol or Tatar hypothesis.

Typo correction for "Uralics Mongols" in my first post: Uralics and Mongols

Old Blog Archive

Dienekes' Anthropology blog is dedicated to human population genetics, physical anthropology, archaeology, and history.

You are free to reuse any of the materials of this blog for non-commercial purposes, as long as you attribute them to Dienekes Pontikos and provide a link to either the individual blog entry or to Dienekes Anthropology Blog.

Feel free to send e-mail to Dienekes Pontikos, or follow @dienekesp on Twitter.